CNTY & WSTN

The Lonesome Buckwhips

1999

With the three other Buckwhips imprisoned (Miri – fraud, Gary – attempted murder, and Benny – voting twice*), the album name and cover image for this album was decided upon by Arty. In an attempt to sell more albums to the youth market, Arty decided that a new and unique title for the album would be based on the cutting edge text (txt) language everyone was using, with the surge in text messaging on cell phones. So the words “country” and “western” were abbreviated. The album title was not as well received as Arty anticipated. In fact many labelled it offensive, in particular Benny.

Once all of The Buckwhips were released from prison, an album release gig was organised, but in promoting the album, Gary accidentally said “c#nty and western” referring to a part of the anatomy rather than a piece of rural land. This caused an uproar and soon all the albums were recalled. Although the reason for recall was primarily due to album sales being nil, rather than the album title.

CNTY & WSTN features numerous hits and as usual a few duds, namely Precious Betty, Marlboro and The Wahine Was a Once Off. If you are one of the lucky few who have this album sitting in your CD rack, treasure chest, or suicide kit, congratulations it is worth a lot of money.

*Benny voted once for Labour and David Benson-Pope at the Corstorphine Community Hall, then again at the Corstorphine Scout Hall in The Dunedin South electorate.